The Quiet Things That Noone Ever Knows
by keepinghidden
Summary: LL in the future. Just a short family ficlet.
1. Chapter 1

Luke watching Lorelai play with baby

Lorelai pulled up the gravel drive to the Crap Shack. Stepping out of the car and making her way across the yard and up the steps to the house, she takes in her daily inventory of all the little things that she has become accustomed to since she married Luke. The door to the garage is perpetually ajar. A rake is leaning against the porch rail seemingly ready to fall into the bushes. His truck is nestled in the grass in front of her updated Jeep. Even more recent is the play-pen full of dolls and stuffed animals that sits next to the porch bench. She smiles as she pictures Luke raking the leaves and little 9 month-old Leah sticking her fingers through the mesh siding of her pen as she watches her daddy with awed interest. Anxious to see her musings in person, Lorelai unlocks the door and calls out to Luke as she steps into the foyer.

With no answer, she hangs up her coat, toes off her heels, and drops her keys into a bowl on the front table. Rounding the corner into her living room, Lorelai catches sight of a tuft of messy hair on the arm of the couch and a very manly arm sticking straight out over the faceless but recognizable tuft. She giggles to herself and continues her way quietly into the living room. Finally getting a full view of the couch, she sees what has never failed to hit her right in the gut. Luke is asleep and sprawled out on the couch, his socked feet stretched all the way to the other end. He has his left arm stretched back over the arm of the couch, but his right rests on his daughter. The little girl lies on her belly stretched out over Luke's chest. Her right fist is clutched at Luke's shirt collar and her left arm dangles to the side of Luke's chest. Leah is wearing only a diaper and her mop of unruly, curly brown hair is damp. _Naps after bath time are always the best_, Lorelai decides. Leah's bright blue eyes are hidden by sleep and her eyelashes flutter as she dreams. She coughs in her sleep and her lips stay apart and puckered. Luke's fingers unconsciously moving up and down in an effort to calm the girl. Both of them are still and so vulnerable, and Lorelai thinks that this is when she likes them best; in a place where you can see nothing but the love the little girl has for her father and the proverbial finger that she has him wrapped around.

The phone vibrating in her pocket distracts Lorelai from her watch. Checking the caller ID, she raises her eyebrows. Maybe Emily learned her lesson. After all, babies plus naptime plus ringing house phones do not equal a fun time much less a productive phone conversation. She answers the phone quietly as she backs up the stairs to the landing, keeping her sleepyheads in view. Only mumbling in the appropriate places, Lorelai isn't paying much attention to her mother as she gets distracted by Leah's attempt to stretch her sleepy limbs. Leah bends and un-bends her knees as she wiggles her toes. The fist clenched around Luke's shirt hardly moves as the other hand fully stretches then curls back to it's tired state. Lorelai sighs and tries to shoo her mother off the phone with a perfunctory promise to see them at Friday Night Dinner. Before she hangs up, Emily startles her by requesting that Lorelai give Leah a kiss on Emily's behalf.

"Oh! Of course, Mom." She grins. "Absolutely."

Intent on doing just that and adding one on for Emily, Lorelai pads back over to the couch and kneels next to Luke's hip. Careful not to jostle them, Lorelai leans over to press a kiss to Leah's heel and making good on her promise, she adds another. As she leans back, she runs her finger across Leah's toes and watches them attempt to curl around her finger. As Lorelai leans back onto her heels, she watches the rise and fall of both Luke and Leah's chests – the girl's tiny body moved just by Luke's breathing. Lorelai smiles and traces her fingers along Leah's lower back and brings her hand to a rest just below where Luke's had stilled.

Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, Lorelai turns her head just as she feels Luke squeeze the hand that rests on Leah's bare back. The corners of her mouth turn up as she sees Luke's eyes, though barely open, staring at her under those long eyelashes. She grins at him as she reaches up with her left hand to brush the fringe on his forehead. He clears his throat softly in an attempt to speak without waking Leah.

"Hey," he says throatily. Lorelai smirks and adds one more thing to her daily inventory.


	2. Chapter 2

Operation

**Operation**

A loud buzz jars him from one of his rare naps. Luke gazes at the alarm clock as he rolls over and stretches is arms over his head. _4:00_? _Geez._ He hears the annoying buzz again from downstairs. This time followed by a chorus of whispers, one sounding tinier than the other. When the third buzz sounds soon after, he finally recognizes its origin. _Operation._ Rory had introduced four year-old Leah to Pretty Pretty Princess the last time she had come to visit. According to Luke, it had all been downhill from there. He and Lorelai had played every board game they owned to appease Leah. _Apparently Operation is next on the list, _Luke sighedas he pushed himself out of bed.

Luke makes his way to the top of the stairs and peers over the railing, unsure if he wants to join in the game. In the middle of the living room he sees the coffee table pushed to the side and Lorelai sitting Indian style on the floor with her back against the couch. Leah is on her knees across from Lorelai, alternating between leaning on her heels and bouncing to the balls of her feet; the game sits between them. Luke sits down on the top step and watches as Lorelai carefully takes the tweezers and successfully takes a piece from the body. The corner of his mouth lifts a bit when Leah looks in awe at Lorelai as if her mother has actually performed some sort of surgery. Lorelai smiles and hands the tweezers to Leah, already leaning over the game.

Sitting on the stairs, Luke leans forward with Leah as she tries to carefully lift a piece from its place inside the body. _BUZZ!_ Leah jerks back with a squeak and looks at Lorelai who, with a hint of a smile, is pretending to look shocked. The little girl begins to giggle then covers her mouth with her hand when her mother raises a finger to her own lips. Luke laughs and rolls his eyes, _of course. Don't wake Daddy with the giggling, but the loud BUZZ from the board game is just fine. _

Luke continues to follow their game from his perch on the stair. Lorelai pouts as she messes up and Leah only grows more determined – leaning closer and closer to the board with every turn. The squeaks and giggles growing louder after each miss. Luke has to move down a step lower to get a clearer view of Leah's next turn. She's now made her way on to her stomach, lying next to the board. From his new angle, Luke can see she's about to go for the rubber band. He's amused to find that he's almost anxious for her. Leah leans over the board, her tongue poking out in concentration. Luke is waiting for the buzz to sound and the squeal that will be sure to follow. Leah's tongue moves to the other side of her mouth as she lowers the tweezers. Her hand jerks, but instead of the expected buzz, the rubber band inside the game pops out and grazes Leah's nose. She stills in shock of the new turn of events and slowly raises her head to look up at Lorelai who seems to be trying her hardest not to laugh. Leah's tiny giggles start in disbelief and slowly get louder and louder. Luke grins as she rolls away from the game onto her back. Her arms fly out to her sides, her chest moving up and down as her laughter gains momentum. It's as close to a chortle he's ever heard come out of that little girl's body.

Luke's eyes move from his daughter's belly-laugh up to Lorelai. She's watching Leah with bright eyes, unable to stop her suppressed laughter from escaping. Luke grins and lets out his own chuckle causing Lorelai to shift her eyes to the stairs. She beams at him in surprised delight; they both turn back to look at their daughter when she hiccups and begins to settle – spent from laughing. Caught, Luke stands up and makes his way down the stairs to play what just might be his new favorite game.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Here's a little late Christmas image. I wasn't sure if it was going to get posted, but thanks Chelsea for taking a look at it for me :)**

The knob turns on the front door, and the door is pushed open slowly as Rory peeks her head around the corner. She quietly shuffles inside the Crap Shack and drops her bags in the foyer. It's late Christmas Eve, but she has yet to miss the excitement of a Christmas morning with Leah and she wasn't about to start now.

When she turns to the living room, she notices the that the lights on the tree seem to get brighter every year and the branches more crowded. Leah's handmade ornaments are scattered on the limbs, and there isn't a single ornament from Rory's childhood that is left behind. Rory's favorites are the ornaments that Lorelai insists they make together. There's a pink, glitter-encrusted, construction paper crown with a picture of the four of them glued haphazardly in the middle that seems to have made its home on the tree's most predominant branches. She stifles a giggle when she remembers the picture being taken after a particularly competitive game of _Pretty Pretty Princess_. To this day, nobody mentions the plastic diamond earring that Luke has dangling off his right ear.

Rory makes her way to the kitchen for a bottle of water. Opening the refrigerator door, she hears the quieted conversations of her mother and step-father outside.

"_Damn it, Lorelai!"_

"_Ssssshhh! And I didn't even do anything… this time."_

"_So the screws are just jumping out of their holes and into the grass?"_

"_Yes. Yes, they are."_

She smiles as she peeks out through the curtain on the back window. Luke is pointing at the ground, and Lorelai is bent over running her fingers through the grass, her torso shaking with laughter.

Rory is startled from her observation when she hears a small gasp behind her. She turns in time to see a tiny body skid across the tile in hopes of making it towards the living room.

"Hey!"

Leah freezes, her eyes fall shut slowly knowing she's been caught.

"Whatcha sneaking around for?"

"Just checking on… the cookies!" Leah promises with a nod, her eyes wide and her hands up in the air in surrender.

"Mmhhmm. The cookies, eh?"

"Yuh huh. I saw Mom looking at them all funny after dinner."

"Come on, kid. Let's get you back to bed."

She chuckles, debating whether she should make up the couch or climb into bed with her little sister. While usually painful, it was always a treat to be woken up by the 6 year old on Christmas morning. Rory runs her fingers through Leah's curls as she steers her back to her room. Leah's feet drag, but she doesn't resist as her socked feet make their way across the kitchen. Rory taps her bottom when they enter the room, and she shuts the door behind her.

"Hey Rory?"

"Yeah?" Rory looks down to see Leah's head almost upside down has she leans back to see her sister as she ask her question.

"How come there are no gifts from Santa?"

"Just checking for cookies, huh? Well, maybe he hasn't come yet." She shrugs.

"But all the cookies are gone." Leah quickly turns around and points her finger at Rory triumphantly. "See, I was looking at the cookies!"

"Well… maybe Santa saw you sneak our of bed and is hiding until you fall back asleep."

"Hiding?? Oh, I can fall back asleep fast. Promise!"

Leah runs from the door and jumps onto her bed, almost slipping right off the other side, then crawls up towards her pillow. She lifts her quilt up and wiggles her legs under before flopping onto her back and pulling the blanket to bunch under her chin. Leah's tiny hands are wrapped around the top of the quilt as her head peeks out to watch for Rory. Rory takes her old pajamas out from the bottom drawer and quickly readies herself for bed. She takes in Leah's wide eyes as she pads to the bed's open space. Leah flips to her left side and turns her back on the door. Rory climbs in with Leah and has hardly settled herself under the covers before a pair of tiny feet snuggle themselves against her shins. Leah rests her head against Rory's shoulder and only closes her eyes when Rory begins to play with the curls that have fallen across her cheek.

She feels Leah's hand tighten around her shirt before she hears the voices coming from the kitchen. Rory looks down to see Leah attempting to keep up the charade as her eyes are closed so tightly that even her nose has begun to wrinkle. Leah smiles and lets out a small whisper, "_Santa"_ before giddily turning her face further into Rory's shoulder. Feeling the energy still radiating from Leah and the bouncing of Leah's knees against her thighs, Rory tugs the quilt over her shoulders, wrapping them both in a cocoon.

Before finally closing her own eyes, Rory makes a mental note to talk to Santa in the morning about _whispering._


End file.
